The present disclosure is related to a system and method for managing gratuities, and more particularly to calculating, allocating, and distributing gratuities among service employees.
In the hospitality industry and many other service based businesses, it is customary for customers to give a gratuity or tip to one or more employees who perform the purchased service. Although a customer may primarily interact with one employee of the business, such as a waiter or waitress, many other employees have assisted to varying degrees in supporting the service provided to the customer. In a restaurant, for example, a host may seat the customer, a busser may clear the table, a food runner may deliver food to a table, a bartender may prepare and/or serve alcoholic beverages, and other employees may similarly provide specific services for the benefit of the customer during their dining experience. At the conclusion of a restaurant transaction, the customer generally gives a gratuity to the server or adds the gratuity to the amount paid for the meal. The gratuity may then be shared among the employees who assisted in providing service to the customer, or aggregated and distributed among the employees according to customs or practices of a given business or industry. The sharing of gratuities has often been manually calculated and documented with ad hoc record keeping, complicating compliance with tax and labor regulations. Even when properly computed, existing systems for gratuity sharing have not provided easy access to the gratuity sharing data. As such, there remains a need for systems and methods for managing gratuities that provide both employers and employees with accurate and timely allocations of gratuities in a cost-effective manner.
Presently disclosed is a computer-implemented method for allocating gratuities that includes employing at least one processor configured to execute computer-executable instructions stored in memory to perform the following acts: receiving transaction information from a point of sale, wherein the transaction information comprises at least gratuity data for each of a plurality of transactions during an accounting period; receiving employee information from the point of sale, wherein the employee information comprises at least hours worked for each of a plurality of employees during the accounting period; receiving gratuity distribution rules for allocating gratuities among at least a portion of the employees; and determining a gratuity allocation for each applicable employee of the plurality of employees based on at least the received transaction information, the received employee information, and the received gratuity distribution rules.
The method may also include allocating to each applicable employee the determined gratuity allocation for that employee. In embodiments, the transaction information is sales data for the plurality of transactions during the accounting period, and the transactions are service transactions provided by the plurality of employees. In an embodiment, at least one processor is remote from the point of sale and may be a cloud computing system.
Receiving the transaction information and employee information for the accounting period may further include receiving a computer-readable file containing the transaction information and the employee information for the accounting period, and storing the received transaction information and the received employee information in a database, and may include receiving the computer readable file from the point of sale via the Internet.
The method may also include determining a total gratuity amount for the accounting period from the transaction information, and determining the gratuity allocation for each of the plurality of employees based on the total gratuity amount for the accounting period.
The method may also include classifying each of the plurality of employees to one of a plurality of gratuity groups based on a job function of the employee; and wherein determining the gratuity allocation for each employee further comprises: allocating gratuities to form a gratuity pool for each gratuity group based on the gratuity distribution rules and allocating the gratuity pool for each gratuity group between the employees of the gratuity group based on the distribution rules.
Allocating the determined group gratuity between the employees of the group may also include determining a total of the hours worked by each employee of the group for the accounting period, and allocating a portion of the gratuity pool for the gratuity group to each employee of the group corresponding to a ratio of the hours worked by that employee to the total hours worked of the group.
Allocating the determined group gratuity between the employees of the group may also include receiving an assigned gratuity factor for each of the plurality of employees, and allocating at least a portion of the gratuity pool for the gratuity group to each employee based upon the employee's assigned gratuity factor.
Determining the gratuity allocation for each of the plurality of employees may further include determining a total of gratuities received by a first group of employees; and allocating a portion of the total of gratuities received by the first group of employees to a second group of employees based on the distribution rules.
Determining the gratuity allocation for each of the plurality of employees may further include determining total cash sales during the accounting period from the transaction information, determining a total cash gratuity from the total cash sales, and allocating the total cash gratuity to the plurality of employees based on the distribution rules.
The method for allocating gratuities may also include communicating the determined gratuity allocation for each employee to an employer payroll system and distributing the determined gratuity allocation to each employee through a payroll check. The method may also include providing a web-portal configured to be accessed by employees, wherein the web-portal is configured to display the determined gratuity allocation for a given employee, and providing a web-portal configured to be accessed by an employer, wherein the web-portal is configured to display the determined gratuity allocation for the plurality of employees. The method may also include, upon determining the gratuity allocation for a given employee, notifying the employee via at least one of a text message, an email, or an instant message of the determined gratuity allocation.
In embodiments, the method is used for each of a plurality of employers and gratuity distribution rules may be received from each of the plurality of employers, with the gratuity distribution rules received from one employer being different than the gratuity distribution rules received from at least one other employer.
Also disclosed is a computer-implemented system for managing gratuity allocations that includes at least one processor coupled to at least one memory configured to execute the following computer-executable components stored in the at least one memory: a database configured to store transaction information and employee information, wherein the transaction information comprises gratuity data for each of a plurality of transactions during an accounting period, and wherein the employee information comprises at least hours worked for each of a plurality of employees during the accounting period; a configuration module configured to receive gratuity distribution rules for allocating gratuities among at least a portion of the employees; a processor configured to determine a gratuity allocation for each of the plurality of employees based at least on the transaction information, the employee information, and the distribution rules; and a reporting module configured to report the determined gratuity allocation for each of the plurality of employees.
In embodiments, the system for managing gratuities also includes an interface component configured to receive the transaction information from the point of sale and to communicate the transaction information to the database to be stored, and configured to receive the employee information from the point of sale and to communicate the employee information to the database to be stored.
The system may also include means for receiving transaction information from a point of sale and storing the received transaction information in the database, and means for receiving employee information from a point of sale and storing the received employee information in the database.
In some embodiments, the reporting module may include web-portal configured to be accessed by employees, wherein the web-portal is configured to display the determined gratuity allocation for a given employee, and a web-portal configured to be accessed by an employer, wherein the web-portal is configured to display the determined gratuity allocation for the plurality of employees.
In another embodiment, the reporting module is configured to communicate with an employer payroll system and to communicate the determined gratuity allocations to the employer payroll system.